The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-11-12
sNsILAoE RATIONs.
Notes and Suggestions Submitted by ah
Experienced Agriculturist-

Notes and Suggestions Submitted by an
Experienced Agricuiturist-
The individual practices of the silo
owners of this country are so varied
and the plans of raising silage so diff
ferent that it is difficult to lay down
any definite rules in regard to siage
feeding. The original idea of ensiage
was to secure by some means as great
q growth of fodder as possible, paying
no attention to grain bearing along
with stalk growth. By this plan silage
was largely "greenness and water"
and in feeding it great quantity was
necessary for ration, and so, perforce,
grain in form Of oats, bran, linseed
meal, and like nitrogenous foods had
to be fed to give balanced ration.
Under this system we heard of cows
consuming bushels, each, of silage per
day, and large grain ration in adj
dition. In the early days of ensilage
men told me they fed from seventy-fivo
to one hundred pounds per day to
grown animals, and the effect was
much rs it would be to gorge an ami
mai on any other sort of dilute food.
1t was not long before the advocates
of exclusive silage feeding discovered
that the ration was too bulky, and that
not only was it better to direct the
growth of the silage fodder towards
grain-bearing, but that there must be
II rotation of crops on the farm. This
implied some clover and tame hay, u
certain amount Of stalks from field corn,
which should be fed along with the
silage; and SO from these causes there
has been reduction in the amount of
the daily silage ration and to my
knowledge last winter from twenty-five
to fifty pounds, along with other feed
ing materials, was about the average
amount fed.
Necessarily there was curtailment
of the silage ration vixen the idea of
grain growth was made prominent in
the raising of ensilage fodder. Grad
ually, in this, the amount of ensilage
seed corn has been reduced to about
twelve to fourteen quarts per acre, and
this thinning out not only gives strong,
lusty stalk in place of the spindling
one, but a big, well developed ear Of
grain on about every stalk, that adds
fully one-half to the ration, pound for
pound. This season drilled in my en-
silage in rows three feet eight inches
apart, kernel each six or eight inches
in the row, and the result has been
more like field corn in it's development
of grain-not attempts at ears, but
full-szed ears, with filled and plump
kernels. The stalks growing twelve
and fourteen feet high, will average
twenty good ears to each twenty-five
stalks, and as we cut them into the slo,
the silage as it came falling from the
i 'snoot," seemed white with its mixture
of corn, and must make ration that
has more than twice the feeding value
of silage that bears no grain-for the
, latter is largely lacking in sugar and
) starch-and n proportionate smaller
, amount must have equal feeding value
The outcry against silage for the
dairy has ceased, and no one now dis
putes the excellence of milk made from
u good silage ration-and to do sc
would be to fly in the face of facts
and so how to feed silage after it ha:
been cooked in the pit, is OF some
, moment. The silagc is ready to fect
!, as soon as the temperature has fallen te
about eighty degrees, which it seems tt
y do readily in about three weeks, aftel
). putting on the covers. A very desirable
+ thing to do, when ready to commence
g feeding, is to remove the covers all of
from one pit, and remove the silage a.
{, wanted evenly from the surface. Thi
method gives the slage chance to be
|. come "aired" and lose its fresh, ant
t often somewhat pungent, odor; ant
then it can not give to the milk any
!. foreign flavor. In feeding the silag'
: should be removed from the surface O
d the pit so frequently that there is NJ
+ chance for any change to occur in it
: chemical character; and observance O
: : this rule, even with what is known a
sour silage. prevents any deterioration
i, in the milk.
: When bran is fed, it is desirable tina
the amount should be divided and pu
on the morning and evening silag
feeds. The two are then eaten together
and go through the animal laborator,
together fordigestion and assimilation
and no known method of feeding cal
better this.
Handiness in feeding silage is great
ly promoted by using two-wheelet
wheel-barrow. Such a barrow is no
inclined to tip over, and if made t.
hold about five or six bushels, it will
contain silage sufficient for abou
twelve cows. By weighing few scoo]
shovelfuls, one can quickly learn t
weigh ration by the eye and hand
and the work of feeding stable o
COWS or steers is quickly performed
and the bran can be added to the sill
age in the manger, and the proportion
for each animal can be varied as cir
cumstances may warrant.-John Gould